How A Nicki Minaj Concert Was A Little Like The New African American History Museum

National Museum for African-American History and Culture

Two incredibly breathtaking, incredibly black things happened to me a few weeks ago. First, I attended the TidalX1015 concert benefiting the Robin Hood Foundation. Then, I visited the newly inaugurated National Museum for African-American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, D.C. the very next day.

I had only found out that I would be attending the TidalX1015 concert and visiting the new museum a few days before my trip. A certain, relatively well-known teacher of mine was taking her radically experimental class to New York and DC to presumably learn about educational policy and black history. She invited me, her intern and mentee, to tag along.

But this certain teacher of mine loves a good surprise. She sent us the trip’s itinerary …

First off, though her clothes themselves should be irrelevant to her job performance, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with Brown’s work attire. A quick look at her Instagram page reveals that Brown’s typical dress seems like it would hold up to any standard dress code. She wears skirts and dresses that are knee-length and high-necked, usually paired with flats or heels, and sometimes a work blazer. In every photo taken of her at school, her neckline is above her collarbone …

Nicki Minaj’s Abortion Story: Why We Still Need Feminism

Nicki Minaj

Nicki Minaj has always taken pride in and ownership of her sexuality in her work. While some deem these choices to be controversial, it seems that she’s trying to demonstrate that women’s sexuality and sexual choices shouldn’t be shameful or impact a woman’s overall worth in any way. Minaj illustrated this belief in a recent Rolling Stone interview, stating, “I stand for girls wanting to be sexy and dance, but also having a strong sense of themselves. If you got a big ol’ butt? Shake it! Who cares? That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be graduating from college.”

Female sexuality isn’t the only stigmatized aspect of women’s lives about which Minaj hopes to raise awareness, though. In the same interview, Minaj opened up for the first time …

Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass” Is No Feminist Anthem

Listening to (and belting out) Top 40 songs in the car is non-negotiable if you’re riding along with me. I love the bubble-gum-for-your-brain songs and gush over new pop tunes. However, I also identify as a feminist and am inclined to listen to these songs with critical ears, ready to pick up on any all-too-common sexist remarks. So, when the radio host proclaimed, “I’ll be playing a song from Meghan Trainor, called ‘All About That Bass’ – some call this catchy song the new pro-women song of the decade,” you could safely assume that I was beyond excited to hear it.

As the first few beats bubbled up from the speakers, I was instantly captivated. The repetition of the phrase “Because you know I’m all about that bass, no treble” …

Are “Empowered” Pop Stars Claiming Sexuality or Giving Into the Patriarchy?

Nicki Minaj in "Anaconda"

Typically, the heterosexual male gaze controls the depiction of women’s bodies and sexuality in pop culture. Music videos especially tend to enforce the idea that female sexuality is defined by what is pleasurable for men. However, some female artists have recently been trying to combat these conceptions about women’s bodies and sexualities in their music videos – to various degrees of success.

Nick Minaj’s new music video, Anaconda, which has an unapologetically sexual overtone, is a major recent attempt at this. Many have criticized the video for being too sexually charged, and support themselves with the claim that Minaj is forcing girls to sexualize themselves at such a young age. Despite this moral outrage, though, it’s evident that Minaj actually benefits young women by claiming …

The Freedom of Having Your Own Space and Your Own Income

What would Virgina have thought of Nicki Minaj?

The issues that Courtney Martin expresses in her article, “‘You Are the NOW of Now!’ The Future of (Online) Feminism”, are closely related to Virginia Woolf’s own theories in her book, A Room of One’s Own. Martin gets straight to the point in her article as she states in her opening paragraphs, “The belief that online activism isn’t ‘real’ or deserving of financial support isn’t just an insult to entrepreneurial bloggers and organizers; it’s creating a crisis in the feminist movement.”

Though she was not necessarily talking about online activism through blogging or the feminist movement, Woolf would definitely agree with Martin.

In A Room of One’s Own, Woolf’s thesis is simply that in order for women to …

Boycott “Monster”

misogyny in pop culture at its peak

When I first read this article on Experimentations of a Teenage Feminist, the first thing I said to myself was “good God.” It wasn’t a good “good God.” It was a BAD “good God.” A REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, HORRIFICALLY BAD “good God.”

Apparently, parts of Kanye West’s upcoming music video for the single “Monster” were leaked online. (I would like to point out that the album’s title is My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.) In the video, half-naked women are drugged or dead, hanging from chains, as West, Jay-Z, Rick Ross, and Bon Iver make sexual advances towards them. Nicki Minaj also makes an appearance in the video.

The lyrics of the song are pretty bad, too. Bon Iver asks, “Are you willing …